The Politics of Crisis Management: Public Leadership Under Pressure

In times of crisis, communities and members of organizations expect their leaders to minimize the impact of the crisis at hand, while critics and bureaucratic competitors try to seize the moment to blame incumbent rulers and their policies. In this extreme environment, policy makers must somehow establish a sense of normality, and foster collective learning from the crisis experience. This uniquely comprehensive analysis examines how leaders deal with the strategic challenges and political risks they face. It is based on over a decade of collaborative, cross-national research.

About the Authors

ARJEN BOIN is an Associate Professor at Leiden University, Department of Public Administration. He is the author of Crafting Public Institutions (2001) and co-editor, with Rosenthal and Comfort, of Managing Crises: Threats, Dilemmas, Opportunities (2001).

PAUL'T HART is senior fellow, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, and Professor of Public Administration at the Utrecht School of Governance, Utrecht University. His publications include Understanding Policy Fiascoes (1996), Beyond Groupthink (1997), and Success and Failure in Public Governance (2001).

ERIC STERN is the Director of CRISMART, acting Professor of Government at the Swedish National Defence College, as well as Associate Professor of Government at Uppsala University. He is the author of Crisis Decisionmaking: A Cognitive Institutional Approach (1999).

BENGT SUNDELIUS is the Founding Director of CRISMART and Professor of Government at Uppsala University. He is Chief Scientist of the Swedish Emergency Management Agency and responsible for promoting research in the area of homeland security.